I’m a mom

The title of this post should not be read as an announcement – instead, it should be read with a note of wonder, confusion, disbelief, and awe. I spent most of my pregnancy thinking how surreal it was to be pregnant, and now I have a hard time realizing I’m a mom. Me. How did that happen?

Baby J was born on Saturday, June 7th, after about 12 hours of labor. I’ll post the obligatory birth story later, but for now, just some thoughts.

I love how soft his hair feels when I rub my cheek against it. The top of his head probably receives more kisses than the rest of him.

He’s a pretty good kid, fairly quiet most of the time, keeps himself company well. Sometimes, though, he cries and cries and cries, and nothing makes it better. Currently, my theory is that it’s associated with bottle feeding, maybe he gets extra gassy with a bottle. The last few days he’s been great, and I’ve breastfed exclusively, but he had a bottle this afternoon and tonight he screamed for no reason we could find. He’s currently in the Moby wrap, or what I like to call “the womb,” so he’s content for the time being. And it’s the only way I can get on the computer – otherwise, I’m typing emails with one finger on a tablet while he feeds.

I’ve taken far fewer photos than I thought I would at this point, much to my mother’s disappointment. Part of it is exhaustion, part of it is the fact that the apartment is a mess in preparation for the move – stuff is literally everywhere, because “just put it there for now, it’s just for a few days.”

Speaking of, we’re moving this weekend, to a bigger place. We packed up some stuff today and Stephen carted it over to the new place, and we’ll get the furniture tomorrow, then hopefully finish up the remaining bits on Sunday. FYI – moving with a newborn is about as much fun as it sounds.

Overall, things are going well, except for some excruciatingnipple pain when he latches on. It eases off after the first minute or so, but that first minute sometimes has me screaming in pain. We met with a nurse on Wednesday and his latch looks okay, so I’m hoping this is just a case of my nipples needing to toughen up. I’ve read it can take 2-5 weeks – I hope I can last, considering I’ve only been breastfeeding for about a week now (he got mostly bottles in the hospital – I’ll get into that later). All I want is something to numb the initial pain – any suggestions, other than ice?

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6 thoughts on “I’m a mom”

Ellie gave me blisters. I did not realize you could get blisters there, but she did. I used Lansinoh Soothies Glycerin Gel Pads. You can put them in the frig before you stick them on your nipples. The coolness of the gel pads really helped soothe the pain.

Oh, yeah, blisters. Worse, the scabs came off. I think I’m healing now, though, sos if we can keep a decent latch going maybe things will get better. I’ve shied away from looking for the gel pads for fear of thrush, but I have found some wonderful relief with breast shells!

yikes. i never had anything like that though a friend of mine experienced the same with her son. turns out that although he had a good latch, he wasn’t able to pull the nipple in far enough and that’s what was causing the pain. he ended up being tongue tied. a quick snip and they were both much better.
i need to see a picture of your son! and can’t wait to hear how everything went — 12 hours was how long it took for me, too.

According to the LLL leader here, Baby J’s not tongue tied. We’ve been working on the latch and its gotten better, thanks mostly to a specific YouTube video I watched. It’s not perfect every time, but it’s better.